The MSP finally is getting a re-manufactured cylinder head to compliment the forged bottom end. The car has been burning oil but got better after I replaced the valve stem seals in the old junkyard head. Hoping a new head and gaskets clean things up.. im anxious to split it apart to see whats wrong.

If anyone is around the Loveland area this weekend and wants to drink my beer and check out the process.. hit me up.

If only you were closer, I'd help you out. (waits for the peanut gallery)

do it chris!!! get you *** up there... me I have .. and ... and .. and know nothing about cars...

dont worry.. its a good time to learn .. Colorado springs is a pretty good clip for some free beer tho!

Oh.. I forgot to point out that this cylinder head is from Cylinder Heads International (CHI). I couldn't find any good reviews of the company and only a couple bad reviews so I'll be posting about my results when I come to a conclusion. Right now the head is setting at AMS in Fort Collins being checked over by skilled automotive machinist before I install it.

So far the shipping was quick, the head looks great, still has the penetrating dye on the valves and dome. The head has been resurfaced, looks like it got a cam grind, should have new valve shaft seals and a 3 angle valve job.

My only complaint right now is the paint.. they painted the head and covered the intake and exhaust gasket surface and got some over spray onto the cam seal land. this is a pretty minor complaint and will easily be corrected with some brake cleaner and a towel.

Check back for a further review of the company's product.

Well the rain put a hold on installing the cylinder head but it looks like it will happen this weekend. I got the head back from AMS with their stamp of approval. So far CHI seems to be a good company to work with. Shipping was only $20 and includes free return of the core. The core charge is $200 and isn't billed until 30 days after date of sale so if you return a core within 30 days there is no charge. The overall cost of the head was about $50-75 cheaper than any other place and only about the same price as if I took my head off and had the work done at a machine shop. By buying from them I've avoided the down time associated with the machine work.

Well mystery solved.

That's where all my oil has been going... Guess I'm looking for a new block. Also might be interested in a gt28 or maybe a gt25 if the price is right.

I highly recommend calling these guys and getting a quote before you go trying to replace that block!
http://www.mt-llc.com/index.php

They can fix about anything cylinder related and have the capability to NickaSil the walls!

I might check them out and see what they cost and what they can do for me. Do they have a local shop or are they up in Wisconsin only?

My machine shop in Fort Collins is pretty confident that they can re-sleeve the cylinder and rebore everything for less than $200. I would like to only bore the cylinder that is being re-sleeved because it will save me about $500 in new pistons and the block was bored about 30k miles ago. But I'll need some professional advice on if that would be acceptable to not bore all 4 at the same time.

So far, it looks like a a retainer clip on the floating piston pin either wasn't installed correctly or failed and the piston pin worked its way into the cylinder wall. I'm curious to get the motor broken down the rest of the way and see what damage there is to the rod and piston.

Oh millenium will be way more expensive! But they can do NSC plating. But re-sleeving would be fine if your not going crazy with the build! good luck!
I'll be waiting for the pics of the piston once you get it out! hope it didn't egg shape the small end on the rod!

I have pictures!

I found these in my oil pan. They are two of the oil squirters that spray the bottom of the piston. Apparently they got knocked off.. dont know how.



Here is another shot of the damage where the wrist pin milled a couple grooves into the cylinder wall.




Here is the damaged wiseco piston. It appears that the piston pin slipped over the retainer clip. Only thing that I can think that would cause this is that the retainer land was milled too deep or the retainer ring supplied with the piston was the wrong size. The ring appears to be the same diameter as the other ones that did not fail. My machine shop had never seen this happen before and agreed that the pocket was probably milled too deep. Now I'll call wiseco and see if they will do anything to help understand this problem or replace the piston. Other than that the piston looks like it suffered no damage. from the pic it looks like it has some wear marks where it passed over the damage too the cylinder but it is really really just not discoloured from use in that area.. maybe because of the air and oil that passed by.




and last but not least.. here is my knock sensor. It melted. I have no idea why.. I've heard of people claim that sustained knock can cause it to overheat and let the smoke out.. but im not too sure about this one. There was a period when the coil clip failed and it ran on 3 cylinders till I could get off I25.. this could maybe have cause sustain knock sensing.. but im still a little skeptical. It also melted one with the previous owner prior to going megasquirt. Its not a big loss because the engine is on the megasquirt which currently does not read knock but I would like to have it working properly.

More Pics!

Fresh re-sleeved block. With a good hone and re-surfaced. ready to start assembling. This is turning into a fairly extensive build.. mated to a remanufactured cylinder head, it should be a fairly bullet proof motor.





And fresh paint all around.

wow that looks nice!

thanks!.. .it will look a lot nicer assembled if I ever get my pistons back from wiseco! I media blasted and cleaned the intake and will get some wrinkle coat on it this weekend. better do the valve cover as well.